


Lapsus Linguae

by for_darkness_shows_the_stars



Series: What Comes After [13]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang Is A Good Uncle, Air Nomad Lore (Avatar), Angst, Crack, F/M, Gen, Swearing ... of a sort, The Sukka child is a little shit, a bit of, but everyone loves her anyway, just a bit, recognize aang as the bad boy of the gaang 2k20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27163126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_darkness_shows_the_stars/pseuds/for_darkness_shows_the_stars
Summary: Aang accidentally teaches his sweet, innocent niece a bad word.
Relationships: Aang & Original Child Character, Aang & Sokka & Suki, Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Series: What Comes After [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981828
Comments: 12
Kudos: 150





	Lapsus Linguae

**Author's Note:**

> Lapsus Linguae - Lat. slip of the tongue
> 
> Inspired by the fact that Aang's favourite word is monkeyfeathers, AKA, absolutely and beyond all doubt Nick's way of censoring motherfucker.

So ... Suki and Sokka decided they needed some ‘alone time’.

(Why they chose to call it _that_ in front of him, he would never know. He was twenty-four, he understood the concept of a _date_. Spirits.)

The natural follow-up of this decision is that they would need someone to babysit their daughter while they’re smooching, groping and generally acting like teenagers and not some of the most influential people in the world. Because of course they did.

The natural follow-up of _that_ , considering that Aang just so happened to be visiting the South Pole at the right time, saw him now, faced with a five year-old who stared up at him with grey eyes placed on a freckle-dusted, brown-skinned face. Yue grinned, revealing a gap-toothed smile.

Aang grinned back.

* * *

“Braid my hair,” Yue had ordered half an hour ago, with all the conviction of a child raised by adoring parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents, not to mention the gaggle of doting aunts, uncles and cousins.

He’d already given her the Water Tribe loopies, the Earth Kingdom bun, the Water Tribe wolftail, the Fire Nation topknot, the Earth Kingdom plait, the Fire Nation phoenix plume, and a series of styles that belonged to no people or nation. Some of them he’d made up himself, and they were as successful as a style made up by someone who doesn’t really have hair can be.

If there was one conclusion he had come to is that having a shaved head is a blessing. Imagine doing _this_ every day.

“How did lady Air Nomads wear their hair?” the girl asked, once Aang had admitted defeat.

He paused.

“They …” Memories assaulted him, the ethereal face of Avatar Yangchen, serene and benevolent, rendered eternal in countless statues and murals, the rare sight of a visiting nun in the Southern Air Temple. “I never saw that many ladies,” he admitted. “The monks and the nuns used to live separately.”

Yue frowned. “So there were no girls where you lived?” she asked.

Aang shook his head. “Not really. Just us boys. Sometimes they would bring the girls for a visit, or they’d bring us to visit them, and of course, there were the festivals, but …”

Yue nodded sagely. “I like it. Boys can’t pull at your hair if there aren’t any boys around.”

“Boys pull at your hair?”

She grinned. “Not since Mum taught me how to punch.”

Aang couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “Well, I’m a pacifist, but …”

“Can you do my hair like a lady Air Nomad’s?”

“I … I guess I could try.”

He ran the brush through it again before he could begin. Yue’s hair was the same ginger colour as Suki’s, though much longer, falling halfway down her back.

Carefully, and separated it into three strands, beginning at half length, and interwove them together into a simple three strand braid. Tying it off, he said, “This is how Avatar Yangchen wore her hair. Though for maximum accuracy, I’d have to shave this all off.” He ran a hand over the front of her scalp. “To show off the arrow better,” he explained.

Yue took a good look at herself in front of a mirror. “I like it,” she declared. “But I don’t really want to shave.”

Aang chuckled. “That’s okay, I suppose. I’m glad you like it.” He deliberated with himself for a moment before beginning slowly, “I know … I mean, there’s one other I know. It’s much more complicated, and I’ve never really taken a good look at it, but … I could … try?”

The look in Yue’s eyes was one he would never forget. The girl was euphoric at the thought, and Aang … well. Aang never thought he’d have someone to share these with. Perhaps if he ever had a daughter of his own … well. He’d do her hair every day.

“Do you have any pins?”

* * *

As it turned out, she did, in fact, have pins. And she insisted on describing every single one to Aang.

“And _this one_ ,” she said, raising an ornately carved silver pin with a large, shiny pearl on top, “was given to me by Auntie Katara, because I liked it so much. And I stole this one from Aunt Toph's bun when she was carrying me last autumn. I think she knew I did it, but she never said anything, so i guess I get to keep it. And _this_ _one_ was Dad’s gift for Mum’s birthday. And _this one_ —”

That ... took a while.

* * *

“Oh, _monkeyfeathers,_ ” Aang hissed, as a long whalebone pin pricked at his finger hard enough to draw blood. He glared at the offending item, but to his chagrin, the pin didn’t even look chastised.

Yue giggled, a sweet, innocent sound. “Monkeyfeathers,” she echoed.

 _That_ was far less innocent.

“Monkeyfeathers. Monkeeeyfeeaaatheers …” Her voice had taken on a melodic quality engineered specifically to make fun of adults. Yue did things like that.

“Yue …”

“Yes, Uncle Aang?” she turned her head to him, grey eyes sparkling with mischief that told him she knew _exactly_ what she was doing.

“You … that’s a _bad_ word, okay? And I really … I really _shouldn’t_ be saying it, and neither should you,” he tried.

Oh.

Oh, _absolute monkeyfeathers._

“But Uncle, you’re the Avatar,” Yue said seriously.

“That doesn’t mean I’m right all the time,” Aang said. “Just … don’t ever speak that word in front of your parents, okay, sweetie?”

Suki would slice him up into an Aang-fillet with her fans before Sokka could even get the chance to pull out his beloved boomerang.

And the worst part is that they’d know _exactly_ who taught her that. Toph swore a lot, but _her_ swears were far more obscure than one regular monkeyfeathers. And while Zuko _knew_ the most creative ones—three years on a ship had _some_ effect, at least, his stupid royal stuck-upiness prevented him from using them except in extreme circumstances.

So … yeah.

They would know right away, and then the world would be upheaved _again_ as the Water Tribes are frantically searched for the next Avatar.

Oh, _monkeyfeathers_. He would throw the world into chaos, _again_ , because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, oh, _fuck, fuck, fuck—_

Yue was smiling.

Yue was _smiling_.

Of course she was—her father was _Sokka_. She probably knew more swearwords than Aang _already._

That little—


End file.
